JUNE 15, 2026
Throughout my time working with the Thrivology Research Alliance members, a common theme kept popping up: Youth-supporting professionals have a ton of questions for young people, and rightfully so!
We all want the young people we support to thrive, and it’s much easier to help them thrive when we know their wants and needs, their hopes and dreams, and how (or if!) they’re coping with an ever-changing world.
This theme inspired our new series, Thrivology Youth Leader (TYL) Corner. These quotations and tidbits from our very own Thrivology Youth Leaders are the nuggets of wisdom they offered when prompted with our burning questions:
- What sex education topics do you wish you had more resources for?
- What supports do you and your peers need but aren’t getting?
- What are the qualities that make someone a role model for you?
- How, if at all, do you engage with sexual and reproductive health information online?
- How can we as youth-supporting professionals help you feel more comfortable asking questions about your health and wellbeing?
Young people are teeming with knowledge, insight, and ideas about how you can better help them thrive.
Young people are teeming with knowledge, insight, and ideas about how you can better help them thrive. However, there’s a palpable communication gap between them and the professionals supporting them. When these disconnects persist, young people and professionals struggle to trust each other, and disengagement grows.
Through the process of creating TYL Corner, we’ve learned that young people can struggle to build strong relationships with the professionals in their lives. Past experiences with judgment can create a significant barrier, and different identity groups have their own historical backgrounds, laying out the foundation for medical mistrust.
Also, many young people are simply overwhelmed right now. Economic struggles, current events, and ever-changing digital landscapes are a lot to carry on top of school, extracurricular activities, and personal relationships. When social batteries run low, it can be difficult to make building transformational relationships with adults a priority.
Youth-supporting professionals can also face significant barriers to building strong relationships with young people. When your job is to help young people thrive, it can feel tricky to ask them to contribute their emotional labor to garner feedback.
Many young people may also be facing a swath of unmet needs, and you may be lacking the resources that could help you meet those needs, or it could feel disempowering to have to narrow down to your scope of control. Luckily, one of the greatest resources for young people can be the trusted adults in their lives.
As we start sharing young people’s insights on our Egram and social media channels, consider using these bits of wisdom to bridge the gap between you and the young people you serve. These insights may even serve as useful conversation starters to build stronger relationships and help support the thriving of the youth in your life.
For more resources to help young people thrive, check out Thrivology.com.
